Zeiss cinemizer OLED review

[DH1900]

I received my Cinemizer OLED today after cancelling my order for an ST1080.

First impressions are good, the unit is solidly put together and the control box is too, although it's a little light. The control box is wired straight into the glasses which is good because you can't get an accidental disconnect but means that the whole unit has to be returned if anything goes wrong. The exit pupil is very large, there's a big sweet spot for viewing and this is further helped by the independently adjustable focus for each eye. There's no light bleed but it's very easy to get grease on the glass (zeiss supply 4 disposable lens wipes, a pack of these would be a very wise purchase). The adjustable ear pads are a very neat way to keep the device on your head without straps. The supplied case is solid and comfortably fits everything with no forcing.

The screen is OLED so there's no visible gaps between the pixels, blacks are true black and colour saturation is excellent. The low FoV makes it unsuitable for immersion but less tiring for video watching. You get three nosepiece connectors which change how far off your face the device sits so you can alter the FoV to a certain extent and how much of the world around you you can see (the screen itself is opaque to the outside world)

The achilles heel is that you can't feed it a native resolution signal so text is borderline unreadable, text scaling on Windows can combat this but you wouldn't want to do any reading beyond file names.

I'm going to try playing some Xbox games, particularly, Halo Anniversary tomorrow so I'll post an update once I've tried that. I'm happy to answer any questions.

For anyone considering buying it who's outside the EU, you can now buy it for 550 euros from easy-entertain.com (it's 650 in the EU).

Edit: Tried it with the Xbox, it works wonderfully, though it suits flight sims and racing games more than FPS's.

[brantlew]

Thanks for the review. Sounds pretty solid as long as you know what you are getting and what it's uses are.

[cybereality]

Can you take some pictures maybe?

[DH1900]

Updated with pics.

[cybereality]

Cool. What do you think of the ergonomics? It looks comfortable in the pictures but its hard to tell.

[DH1900]

Cool. What do you think of the ergonomics? It looks comfortable in the pictures but its hard to tell.

It is very comfortable. It's a little front heavy (but only marginally, comparable to my Optoma ZD201 shutter glasses) without the ear clips but with them it's nicely balanced and feels like it's solidly attached to your head with no sensation of pressure (it is secure even when you suddenly look straight down). The arms with the cable exiting at the end of one are right at the edge of being too long to wear it lying down. The nose clip and the inside of the ear clips are coated with a slightly grippy silicone, the nose clip more so than the ear clips.

The lightness of the control box is as much of a curse as it is a blessing. The stiffness of most HDMI cables means it rarely sits flat on a table and the fact that the cable to the HMD exits on one short side and the HDMI on the other means that it won't slip nicely into a pocket (I think a belt mount would be in order for using it as a viewfinder, one of my intended uses).

[brantlew]

The ST1080 has the same problem with their control box. They put cable connectors on opposite sides of the control box which makes it very inconvenient for mobile usage.

[mahr]

I received my Cinemizer OLED today after cancelling my order for an ST1080.

Thanks a lot for the review.

Just 2 questions, please:
1- why it want display in native resolution ?
2- why its not suitable for FPS?

Thank you.

[DH1900]

I received my Cinemizer OLED today after cancelling my order for an ST1080.

Thanks a lot for the review.

Just 2 questions, please:
1- why it want display in native resolution ?
2- why its not suitable for FPS?

Thank you.

1- Because most devices won't output an 870x500 signal
2- It works less well because of the precise aiming required which is easier to achieve on a higher resolution screen. It does work, but it's better for driving/flight sims (playing a flight sim lying down is an extremely interesting experience).

[mahr]

[1- Because most devices won't output an 870x500 signal
2- It works less well because of the precise aiming required which is easier to achieve on a higher resolution screen. It does work, but it's better for driving/flight sims (playing a flight sim lying down is an extremely interesting experience).[/quote]

Thanks a lot DH1900

I'm going to order one mainly for 3D blue rays. And I hope it is good for that

[mahr]

I received my Cinemizer OLED today after cancelling my order for an ST1080.

1- Because most devices won't output an 870x500 signal

Just to let you know know sir. I found something called powerstrip. It allows you to create custome resolutions(assuming that the attached device can display in that res)
its free . If you like give it a try. As always try it at your own risk. I'm not the creator or publisher of this soft.
If you decided to try it and it works please let me know.

Thanks again

[WiredEarp]

Good idea mahr, anyone able to see if this works?

[mahr]

Gentlemen,

I want to order one , but I found this very recent review:

"The image is fairly crisp (with one major caveat I'll get to shortly) and color and black levels seem fine. There is very little adjustment available however, with just two settings of contrast and a +/-10 percent brightness.

Choosing a darkened room for better contrast, the film "Watchmen" was conveyed with crisp edges, and blacks are as black as I'd expect from OLED, not gray, as they can be on LCDs or cheaper plasmas. There was considerable crushing in the image though, and shadow detail became lost in the fly-by of the baddie's ship in "Star Trek." I haven't seen shadow detail that poor since the TCL L40FHDF12TA, a TV half the price of the Zeiss. Shielding ambient light out with a hand or adjusting the brightness control did nothing to bring substance out of the murk.

Switching to a brighter scene such as the daytime sequences from "I Am Legend," I found found that light sections of the picture, such as the sky, flickered slightly.

The biggest problem with the image, though, is the faint blue and red crosstalk on contrasting edges, regardless of content. It's similar to analog TV ghosting and can be very distracting, especially in darker movies. It's different from typical 3D crosstalk as it's more faint, but potentially just as annoying. Funnily enough, there was no "typical" crosstalk when watching 3D though, but again, movement does tend to flicker. Gaming and a bit of "Hugo" were arguably better than any 3D TV I've seen this year in terms of traditional crosstalk. Pity the red and blue kind was so prevalent."

Is this because of the new firmware update? defective one? or this is true for the cinemizer oled?

Thank you.

[PalmerTech]

It is chromatic aberration. It is a result of the optics they are using, a little bit of it is normal for an HMD, especially one that uses microdisplays.

[aqua3ds]

It is chromatic aberration. It is a result of the optics they are using, a little bit of it is normal for an HMD, especially one that uses microdisplays.

So do Sony HMZ-T1/2 and SMD ST1080 have this issue as well?

[brantlew]

ST1080 has a worse issue. The LCOS technology requires that the 3 different colors be flashed in sequence. When you move your eyes quickly across the screen or if the unit bounces you perceive the time delay between the colors and it creates a "rainbow" effect on the screen.

[PalmerTech]

It is chromatic aberration. It is a result of the optics they are using, a little bit of it is normal for an HMD, especially one that uses microdisplays.

So do Sony HMZ-T1/2 and SMD ST1080 have this issue as well?

The T1 does, I do not know about the T2.

[mahr]

Thank you gentlemen a lot for the info.

I contacted Zeiss's support and got (as usual) a very generic answer. To summerize: These are technical limitations of all devices of this kind.
So obviously there is nothing that can be done. If you want a wearable screens, you have to accept these issues.

big thanks

[aqua3ds]

Gentlemen,

I want to order one , but I found this very recent review:

"The image is fairly crisp (with one major caveat I'll get to shortly) and color and black levels seem fine. There is very little adjustment available however, with just two settings of contrast and a +/-10 percent brightness.

Choosing a darkened room for better contrast, the film "Watchmen" was conveyed with crisp edges, and blacks are as black as I'd expect from OLED, not gray, as they can be on LCDs or cheaper plasmas. There was considerable crushing in the image though, and shadow detail became lost in the fly-by of the baddie's ship in "Star Trek." I haven't seen shadow detail that poor since the TCL L40FHDF12TA, a TV half the price of the Zeiss. Shielding ambient light out with a hand or adjusting the brightness control did nothing to bring substance out of the murk.

Switching to a brighter scene such as the daytime sequences from "I Am Legend," I found found that light sections of the picture, such as the sky, flickered slightly.

The biggest problem with the image, though, is the faint blue and red crosstalk on contrasting edges, regardless of content. It's similar to analog TV ghosting and can be very distracting, especially in darker movies. It's different from typical 3D crosstalk as it's more faint, but potentially just as annoying. Funnily enough, there was no "typical" crosstalk when watching 3D though, but again, movement does tend to flicker. Gaming and a bit of "Hugo" were arguably better than any 3D TV I've seen this year in terms of traditional crosstalk. Pity the red and blue kind was so prevalent."

Is this because of the new firmware update? defective one? or this is true for the cinemizer oled?

Thank you.

I believe the reviewer from cnet has not updated the firmware.

I do not experience any flickering on bright scenes but there is chromatic aberration (e.g. white text on black background).

I would recommend Cinemizer OLED if you want a portable HMD for watching movie and gaming.

Personally I would rate it 8/10

[mahr]

"I believe the reviewer from cnet has not updated the firmware."

The review said that he has 2 options for contrast. Which is on the change log for the new firmware notes.n
Also, the tech response didn't suggest any defective equipments/software , that the reviewer might have used.

But of course . There are tons of hardware/software environments. And who knows if its his equipments, the reason, or not.

yes even if his findings are true. I believe the cinemizer is the best of its kind, for now